Washington High, Colton CA - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Washington High

Washington High is an alternative school serving kindergarten through grade twelve in Colton, California, operated by the Colton Joint Unified School District. It is a small school with enrollment centered mainly in the middle and high school grades, though with a spread reaching back to early elementary.

The school sits in a mid-sized city shaped by its railroad and freeway-crossroads heritage, with a mix of residential, commercial, and industrial areas. Colton functions as a logistics and healthcare hub in the Inland Empire, anchored by major warehousing and trucking operations in the Agua Mansa Industrial Corridor and by Arrowhead Regional Medical Center. The city is experiencing residential growth, with new townhome and single-family projects bringing families into the area. Housing values have remained relatively stable over the past year, and rents are moderate by regional standards.

Washington High serves a student population of substantial economic need. Nearly all students enrolled qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. The student body is predominantly Hispanic, with meaningful representation from Black and white students. The enrollment is small for its grade band, with a sparse early-elementary presence and concentration in grades six through twelve.

Academic proficiency is markedly low across all tested subjects. In mathematics, students show proficiency in the midteens to low twenties across grades six through eight. English language arts proficiency ranges from roughly fourteen to twenty-four percent across grades six through eight, with grade seven performing closest to the school median. Science proficiency in grade eight sits in the mid-teens. The school's overall proficiency index places it in the bottom quartile of districts across San Bernardino County. State assessment data for grades three through five are suppressed, typically because the cell sizes are too small for public reporting; this reflects the school's small early-elementary enrollment and is consistent with the alternative school model.

Because Washington High is an alternative school, it operates outside the standard grade-track pathway. Alternative schools typically serve students who have left traditional schools, students behind in credits, those seeking accelerated or flexible scheduling, or those needing smaller, more personalized environments. The school's full kindergarten-through-twelve designation and small overall enrollment suggest it may function as both a K-12 building and a pathway back to traditional completion for older students. The school does not report a graduation rate in the available data, which may reflect that the school does not serve a traditional twelfth-grade cohort or that graduation data are reported differently for alternative settings.

A parent considering Washington High should understand it as a small, economically disadvantaged school serving a community in transition. Its academic proficiency results are substantially below county averages, a reflection of both its student population's starting points and the challenges of serving students in alternative pathways. The school's fit depends on a family's specific goals: whether they are seeking a smaller, more flexible learning environment for a student who has struggled in traditional school, or seeking strong college-preparatory rigor and course breadth, important questions to explore directly with the school. The Colton Joint Unified School District recently approved a major facilities bond in November 2024 to repair and modernize aging schools, which may bring infrastructure improvements to Washington High over coming years.

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Academic performance

State test results and graduation outcomes.

Graduation rate (ACGR)

>=50%Cohort of 13 students · Class of 2021

The federal source publishes a banded range instead of an exact rate when the graduating cohort is small enough that an exact number could risk identifying individual students.

How this school compares to all schools in this state

Each dot is one school’s SY 2020-21 graduation rate, binned by integer rate. Taller columns mean more schools at that rate. This school is highlighted.

2,394 schools plotted. 142 additional schools' rates are federally suppressed and not shown. Data: EDFacts SY 2020-21.

Math

Grade 618%

School 18% · District 22% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 12 pts below state median · ▼ 4 pts below county median

Grade 719%

School 19% · District 15% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▼ 12 pts below state median · ▼ 2 pts below county median

Grade 818%

School 18% · District 13% · ▲ 5 pts above district

▼ 10 pts below state median · ▼ 1 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 618%

School 18% · District 36% · ▼ 18 pts below district

▼ 26 pts below state median · ▼ 20 pts below county median

Grade 724%

School 24% · District 23% · ▲ 1 pts above district

▼ 21 pts below state median · ▼ 14 pts below county median

Grade 814%

School 14% · District 27% · ▼ 13 pts below district

▼ 30 pts below state median · ▼ 22 pts below county median

Science

Grade 817%

School 17% · District 13% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▼ 9 pts below state median · ▼ 3 pts below county median

Social studies

Grade 83%

School 3% · District 40% · ▼ 37 pts below district

▼ 46 pts below state median · ▼ 41 pts below county median

This schoolColton Joint Unified, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.